First Date (Minimum Wage Sidekick Book 2)

by Lucas Flint

  Nonetheless, I jumped up to my feet again and fired two more laser blasts at the drone. Once again, Zip dodged, but instead of getting closer, it actually retreated farther away. That confused me until I looked up and realized that Cyberkid was missing.

  That was when I heard the roar of rocket boots behind me. I looked over my shoulder just in time to see Cyberkid rushing toward me at a shocking speed. He slammed into my back with enough force to send me flying. I hit the floor and rolled several times until I crashed into the wall, where I lay as dazed as if I had just been punched by a giant.

  Shaking my head, I looked up to see Cyberkid floating in the air again, with Zip hovering beside him. Cyberkid’s arms were crossed in front of his chest and his smirk was bigger than ever.

  “Aw, what’s the matter?” said Cyberkid. “Your pretty eye lights not cutting it? You look pretty tired. If you want to give up and go home to mommy, I won’t think any less of you than I currently do.”

  I ground my teeth. I slowly rose back to my feet, mostly because I hurt too much to move very fast. Although Cyberkid didn’t seem that much heavier or bigger than me, he certainly knew how to use his weight to deal devastating blows. It was pretty obvious that I couldn’t match him for sheer physical strength, but maybe I didn’t need to. Maybe I could beat him some other way.

  “So you want to be humiliated again,” said Cyberkid. He chuckled. “All right. Well, I guess Zip and I will just have to teach you another lesson. And by ‘teach,’ I mean beat it into your thick skull, obviously.”

  I didn’t say anything. A plan was forming in my mind, one that had a good chance of working, but it all depended on whether Cyberkid was smart enough to see it coming. He seemed too arrogant to even consider that he could lose, a trait I could use against him as long as I was smart.

  “Pretending to be the strong and silent type, huh?” said Cyberkid. “It’s not working, if that’s what you’re trying to do. You’re too weak to pull it off.”

  I didn’t say anything. Instead, I ran toward Cyberkid and Zip, hoping that Cyberkid would react the way I expected him to in order for my plan to work.

  Just as I thought, Cyberkid pointed at me and shouted, “Get him, Zip!”

  Zip flew toward me at a frightening speed. I immediately stopped, however, and waited for a second, lining up the shot just right. Once my aim was correct, I unleashed two powerful lasers directly at the incoming drone.

  As I expected, Zip swerved out of the way, but Cyberkid was not so lucky. Because Zip had been between me and him, my lasers kept going until they hit Cyberkid’s rocket boots, blowing them up. Cyberkid immediately fell toward the floor, yelling all the while. He crashed into the floor hard and lay there, his chest smoking from where my lasers had hit him, a stunned look on his face.

  I ran toward Cyberkid, hoping to take him out before he could recover, but then I heard the flapping of metal wings behind me and looked over my shoulder to see Zip coming after me. I immediately threw myself to the floor, just barely avoiding its sharp, metallic claws as the drone flew over me. At the same time, however, I looked up and blasted Zip with my lasers, striking its boosters.

  Zip’s boosters exploded, causing Zip to hurtle toward Cyberkid like a meteor. Cyberkid, however, managed to roll out of the way in the nick of time. When Zip crashed into the floor where he had been lying mere seconds ago, it exploded into a mess of flame and burning metal.

  “Zip! No!” Cyberkid shouted in horror, staring at the burning metal like it was his only son.

  I, on the other hand, just got back to my feet and rushed over to Cyberkid. I slammed my shoulder into him, sending Cyberkid falling onto the floor. He tried to get up, but I pinned him to the floor with one foot and my eyes began glowing with charged energy.

  “I wouldn’t get up if I were you,” I said, making my voice as threatening as possible. “Otherwise, I might do more than just knock you out of the air.”

  Cyberkid stopped struggling underneath me, but he did glare up at me with even more hatred than ever. For my part, I didn’t care. I just met his glare with one of my own, daring him to do something he’d regret, daring to give me an excuse to shoot him with my laser beams.

  The tense moment was broken when I heard clapping. I looked over my shoulder toward the metal box where Rubberman and Myster stood. Rubberman was clapping, while Myster had his arms crossed in front of his chest, a look of disappointment on his face.

  “Good job, Beams!” said Rubberman. “And a good fight in general. Much more exciting than I expected it to be. Don’t you agree, Mark?”

  Myster nodded. “It was. I’ve never seen your sidekick in action before, aside from the battle with Lord Mechanika. He’s more tactical than I first thought.”

  Though Myster’s words were nice, I could tell that he was rather disappointed in Cyberkid’s failure to beat me. I looked down at Cyberkid, about to ask him if he needed help, but instead he pushed me off of him, nearly knocking me over in the process. Without saying a word, Cyberkid got up, brushed off his chest, and walked over to the smoking remains of Zip, all without looking at me.

  “Uh, hey, Cyberkid,” I said as Cyberkid knelt in front of his destroyed drone. “Um, it was a good fight and you really challenged me back there. Just wanted to let you know that.”

  Cyberkid was either ignoring me or just didn’t hear what I said, because he picked up half of the drone’s destroyed wing and muttered, “Damn it. This is going to cost Myster a lot to replace.”

  “Sorry for destroying your drone,” I said, scratching the back of my neck. “I didn’t mean to. I just—”

  I stopped talking as soon as Cyberkid glared over his shoulder at me. It was pretty obvious that he didn’t want to talk or even interact with me in any meaningful way. He was probably just angry that I had managed to beat him in front of his boss. Not that I felt any need to apologize. After all, I won fair and square, and if Cyberkid couldn’t accept the fact that I was a better fighter than him, that was his problem, not mine.

  That was when I heard footsteps coming toward us. Looking over my shoulder, I saw both Rubberman and Myster approaching. Rubberman looked as happy as ever, while Myster looked slightly less so, perhaps because he was still disappointed by Cyberkid’s defeat.

  “It’s good to see our training sessions finally paying off, isn’t it, Beams?” said Rubberman. “Though I have to admit, Cyberkid did a good job, too, and really had you on the ropes for a while there.”

  “Yes, indeed,” said Myster. “And Cyberkid, don’t worry about your drone. We’ll get it replaced as soon as possible.”

  “Okay,” said Cyberkid, dropping the remains of Zip and standing up, though he didn’t look very happy. “I can live without Zip for a few days. It’s not a problem.”

  But I could tell that Cyberkid actually was very upset about the destruction of his drone. That still made me feel a little uncomfortable, at least until Myster looked at me and said, “Oh, Beams, I almost forgot. I need you to sign something for me.”

  Myster pulled out a piece of folded paper from nowhere and handed it to me, along with a pen. Curious, I took the paper and, unfolding it, saw that it was a printed out picture of me, apparently taken from some website. Based on the frozen school in the background, it must have been one of the pictures taken of me after Rubberman and I defeated Fro-Zen, though I couldn’t remember who had taken this particular picture of me.

  I looked up at Myster. “What’s this?”

  “A picture of you,” Myster replied. “I need you to autograph it.”

  “Autograph it? For—”

  “For Charlotte, of course,” said Myster without missing a beat. “She asked me to have you sign this picture of yourself for her collection of your things. I promised her I would get your autograph the next time I saw you, so I figured this was the best time to do it.”

  I blinked. “A girl wants my autograph? Really?”

  “Really,” said Myster. He leaned toward me, a firm look on his face. “
And if you don’t give it to me, my daughter will be very upset. And if my daughter is upset … well, let’s just say that I won’t be happy, either.”

  I gulped and immediately scrawled my autograph across the surface of the picture. It was probably hastily done and unreadable, but when I handed the signed photo to Myster, he smiled and folded the picture up, saying, “Thanks so much for your understanding, Beams. Charlotte will be delighted to see it when Cyberkid and I go home today.”

  As Myster said that, I glanced at Cyberkid. If he had looked annoyed before, he was absolutely furious now. He was pointedly looking at the piece of metal in his hands which he had picked up from the remains of Zip, but he was twisting it so much now that it looked like it was about to snap in two in his hands. He was clearly trying to keep himself from losing his temper, which was probably because his own boss had just asked for my autograph right in front of him. I sort of felt sorry for him, but at the same time, I remembered just how much of a jerk he was, which made it easier to ignore his anger.

  I looked at Myster again and said, “It’s not a problem, Myster. I have just never given my autograph to anyone before, that’s all.”

  “Well, I suggest practicing it,” Myster said. “As your popularity grows, you’ll gain more and more fans, who will ask you to autograph all sorts of strange things. I remember one fan of mine who wanted me to sign his pet ferret, which was kind of hard because the little critter wouldn’t stand still long enough for me to—”

  “Anyway,” said Rubberman, interrupting Myster. “I think that that’s enough training for today. Let’s go and grab some dinner. Adams should be finished by now and he always makes great stuff.”

  Just as Rubberman said that, the door to the Rubber Room burst open and Adams staggered in, almost falling on his hands and knees. He managed to catch himself at the last minute, however, and held onto the doorknob for support, panting as if he had just run a mile.

  “Adams?” said Rubberman as we all looked over at him. “What’s the matter? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  “Sorry for interrupting your training session, Mr. Pullman, but I have an urgent report from the police,” said Adams. “A new supervillain has been spotted in the Golden City Park and the police require your assistance to deal with him.”

  “All right,” said Rubberman. “Tell the police Beams and I will be on our way.”

  “And tell them that Cyberkid and I will be there, too,” said Myster. “No way we’re going to let you go and have all the fun by yourself.”

  Adams nodded and left the room, while Rubberman looked at me and said, “Come on, Beams. To the Rubbermobile!”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  It would have been a nice day in the park if not for the mad man with the flamethrower screaming his head off and setting trees on fire. Granted, it was a pretty cold day today, but this was not how I preferred to warm up.

  Crouching behind an overturned park bench, I watched as the mad man in question—a supervillain who called himself Pyro, for obvious reasons—swung his flamethrower this way and that, spewing flames in every direction. Trees burned and grass smoked, but thankfully, my helmet had an air filter that kept me from choking on the smoke.

  Pyro himself also wore a gas mask, which was probably the only reason he had yet to choke to death on his own smoke. He wore a full-sized, flameproof red and yellow costume that made him look kind of like a firefighter at first glance, though the resemblance quickly wore off the longer you stared at him. He was pretty short—just a few inches taller than me—but with that flamethrower in his hands, he didn’t need to be tall to be a threat.

  According to the police, Pyro had shown up out of nowhere about half an hour ago and began torching random trees and statues in Golden City Park. No one knew for sure why he was doing this, but he seemed to have been a former, disgruntled park employee who was attempting to get revenge for being fired from his job. The only reason the police thought that was because Pyro had ranted about being fired from his job in the park when he first appeared, but given how utterly insane Pyro clearly was, he might have just been making it up.

  Regardless, defeating Pyro was outside of the expertise of the city’s cops, so Rubberman, Myster, Cyberkid, and I had arrived here as quickly as we could. Fortunately, we managed to arrive before Pyro burned down the whole place, but at the moment, directly attacking him was out of the question, because his flamethrower made it hard to fight him directly. He kept shooting his flamethrower in random directions, setting flame to his nearby surroundings. I was amazed that he had avoided burning himself so far or overheating himself; with all of the fire surrounding him, I thought he’d be baked alive inside his suit for sure. Perhaps his costume was made out of sterner stuff.

  Regardless, Pyro had yet to notice me, Rubberman, Myster, or Cyberkid, mostly because all four of us were currently huddled behind an overturned park bench near one of the many statues of Harold Golden that dotted the city park. I looked over my shoulder at my boss and our two allies, who were looking at me expectantly.

  “Well?” said Cyberkid impatiently. “What do you see? What’s he doing?”

  I shrugged. “Pyro just seems to be running around screaming and burning stuff. It’s going to be hard to land a direct hit on him, at least as long as he is surrounded by all of that fire.”

  Rubberman sighed. “I hate fighting villains like these. I’m best at short range fights, not long range ones. I should have brought along the Rubber Gun; at least that would have given me a way to attack him from a distance.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” said Myster. “This Pyro character is dangerous, but doesn’t seem entirely sane. I think if we can distract him, one of us could sneak up on him and take him out from behind before he even realizes what happened.”

  “I’ll do it,” I said, holding up my hand. “My eye beams should allow me to distract him while keeping my distance.”

  “Good idea,” said Rubberman. He gestured at himself and Myster. “Myster and I will sneak around the trees and take him by surprise while you keep him distracted.”

  “What about me?” said Cyberkid. “What am I supposed to do?”

  “You can wait here and provide Beams with back up if he needs it,” said Myster. “Your powers aren’t very useful against a villain like Pyro, I’m afraid, so you’d be safer here.”

  Cyberkid pouted and folded his arms across his chest. “All right. I’ll be a good little boy and wait for Beams to save the day. Not like I’ve been a sidekick longer than him or anything. And I definitely don’t have an invisibility watch that could help you guys sneak up on Pyro or anything.”

  Myster frowned and shook his head. “Nah. Your invisibility watch is still too unreliable to work. Besides, I don’t think you brought it with us to Golden City, so there’s no point in even mentioning it.”

  Cyberkid just sighed, while I frowned in annoyance, but decided not to say anything about his negative attitude at the moment. I just ran out from our hiding place toward Pyro, who was laughing madly at a tree that was burning down before him, seemingly unaware that I was right behind him.

  Without hesitation, I fired two bursts of lasers at him. I was not intending to hit him, so the lasers merely struck the ground at his feet, but it was enough to make him whirl around and spot me immediately.

  “You!” Pyro shouted, pointing at me. “I know who you are! You’re Rubberman’s sidekick, aren’t you?”

  “Wow, you recognize me,” I said. “I’ve always wanted to be recognized by a pyromaniac.”

  “Yes, you’re Rubberman’s sidekick all right,” said Pyro. “And if you’re here, then that means that Rubberman is probably here, too, though I don’t see him at the moment.”

  I held up my hands, hoping that Pyro would not start looking around for Rubberman. “Not this time, my friend. Today, it’s just going to be you and me.”

  “Oh, really?” said Pyro. “In that case, it will be very easy to burn you to ash. After I’m done with you
, I’ll go back to achieving my original plan of destroying this stupid park. I’ll burn the whole place to the ground and salt the earth so that nothing else can grow here!”

  “You sure talk a lot for a crazy guy,” I said.

  Pyro merely growled in response. He lifted up his flamethrower and fired a stream of flame at me. I jumped out of the way, rolling across the blackened, crunchy grass, and coming to a stop behind a tree. I looked around the tree and fired more lasers at him, but I wasn’t really aiming at him. I was mostly just trying to keep his attention on me; I didn’t see Rubberman or Myster yet, but I figured they were both around here somewhere and still needed more time in which to sneak up on Pyro.

  Pyro dodged the lasers and ran toward me. He kept firing a continuous stream of flame from his flamethrower the whole time, setting more trees, bushes, and grass on fire while also increasing the temperature of the park itself. My costume and helmet were designed to ensure that my body did not get overheated, but even through my climate-controlled suit, I could still feel the intense heat all around me. I needed to get out from the trees, but with Pyro rushing toward me, I didn’t have much of a choice but to run deeper into the trees, hoping to lose him at some point.

  Unfortunately, as I crashed through the thick trees and bushes, I heard more and more fire eating away at the trees around me. A loud crack made me look up in time to see a huge tree limb falling toward me, which forced me to dive forward to avoid getting crushed. I rolled to a stop once again and, panting slightly, looked over my shoulder to see if I’d lost him.

  I did not see Pyro anywhere; however, I did see his handiwork. Several trees were on fire, their leaves and upper branches burning like crowns of flame, while thick and heavy smoke surrounded me on all sides. The smoke was so thick that I couldn’t see much even with my visor protecting my vision. It occurred to me that this might be intentional; Pyro could be using the smoke and flame to hide, which would make it harder not only for me to find him, but also for Rubberman and Myster to catch up to us and help me.